


A Dance for Two

by chicagoartnerd



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/F, Flirting, Martial Arts, Pre-Femslash, Sparring
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-29
Updated: 2014-12-29
Packaged: 2018-03-04 03:32:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2907737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chicagoartnerd/pseuds/chicagoartnerd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natasha goes to one of the Avengers towers' practice rooms and runs into a sparring partner worth having. In more ways than one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Dance for Two

**Author's Note:**

> There's a sort of sequel fic to this were Steve and Bucky go swing dancing and run into them there. I'll post it soon I promise.

Her feet fell into the familiar first position and slid through the rest of them mechanically until she got to the crossed fourth and went up on the balls of her feet experimentally. She wasn’t wearing pointe shoes so she couldn’t go all the way up if she wanted to. Nat gritted her teeth and spun out of the position in a half hearted arabesque. It could have been perfect. She felt the memory of it deep in her muscles and tendons. A rising star in the Russian ballet. No that wasn’t right. That had never been her. Or it might have been Natalia. But Natalia wasn’t real.

Instead she let her soft black kidskin jazz shoes grip the floor as she started to turn the circle of several palms of the baguazhang. The centrifugal force of the slow, then reversed rapid turns, of the concentric circles in the style calmed her mind.

In and out, pushing palms forward and sliding her feet over the smooth plastic coated cement of the dull gray training room. It was easier to move on the hard floor than on the squishy blue and red practice matts. If Stark had his way the entire room would be wall to wall windows. All Steve had to do was threaten to throw him out the window while sparring for Stark to change his mind and make all of the training rooms windowless and rebar reinforced concrete. 

A breath in through her nose and out through her mouth washed away all the memories. The false ones, the real ones, the ones that were an amalgamation of them. The patchwork doll that was Natasha faded and was replaced with the steady infallible beat of a heart. Someone elses’. 

Her hand shot out before her eyes sprung open. She jammed her open palm into the space below their ribs on the left side. Their response was as instantaneous as hers. Natasha spun carefully out of the way of a foot meant to hook her behind the knee and pull her down. She recognized the woman from the multiple dossiers she had read but had never worked with her personally. They circled slowly away from each other and their eyes locked. 

“Cheng style huh. It suits you.”

Former S.H.I.E.L.D. special agent Melinda May stepped her footing up several paces closer and rapidly struck out at her with hammering fists. Nat used her still tightly coiled abdominal momentum to dodge behind May and throw her. But before she could get her foot looped around her knees she turned to swing at her so that Nat had slide away. As she did she breathed out and responded to May.

“Kan Trigram Snake System is versatile. But I’m betting you also know the other seven animal systems of the Yin style just in case you get bored.”

May smiled faintly and continued to circle her.

“So do you I’m sure. That’s just the kind of agents we are.”

Nat stopped moving at that and used the sudden halt to roll herself towards her to knock her flat on her back. She uncoiled and used her shoulder to flip May at the hip. they went down together onto the hard concrete and both went for each other’s elbows and knees to lock them down. May managed to pry her legs off her arms and push Nat back. She jammed her heels into May’s sides and heard her grunt faintly as Nat sighed and said.

“That’s the kind of agents we were. Now what are we?”

They rolled together and somehow May pinned her beneath her. Her brown eyes were hard and piercing.

“Women with way too much time on their hands?”

Nat snorted and broke the hold she had on her wrists. May hand the sense not to try and hold her and Nat arched up to buck her off of her chest. They both sprung apart in identical crouches and stared. Neither one of them wanted to be the first to relax and offer a hand of introduction to the other. So instead they analyzed the posture and micro facial twitches they were both making in silence. At the same time they rose and extended their hands. 

They met at the forearms in a slap.

“Natasha Romanoff. Former level one field agent.”

May nodded and smiled that tight small smile again.

“Melinda May. Former level seven field agent. Nice bringing your rank into it by the way. Like any of us wouldn’t know the Black Widow on sight. Especially now that you’re all over the daily news.”

May must have realized her mistake a millisecond too late because Nat felt her shoulders hunch slightly at her comment. She knew her face was an empty and empirical blank slate but her workout loose body betrayed her. 

“I didn’t mean any offense. I have nothing but respect for you as an agent and woman. It took fucking guts to expose yourself like that to every internet commentator and political jakal. Not to mention all the arms dealers, crime lords, and militia members who want you dead.”

Nat shrugged the tension out of her shoulders and then rolled them as she looked at May more closely. 

“I just doxxed what S.H.I.E.L.D. had since my defection. There’s some things even I don’t know that I’ve done. That’s how it worked in Russian. Things were different here. Or so I thought.”

May nodded and walked over to the far wall where the rack holding short range weapons were. She picked up a wooden black staff and twirled it effortlessly through several more baguazhang circles. As she did she huffed out a bitter laugh.

“We all have secrets. You didn’t get rid of all that S.H.I.E.L.D. had you know.”

Nat watched her while reaching down from the steel water bottle she had brought along. 

“I know. The world wasn’t ready to know about the Kree for one.”

May faltered minutely in her stance but Nat wouldn’t have caught the mistake if she hadn’t stopped afterwards and leaned against the staff.

“You’re authorized to know about that but you should know better than to mention it here. Stark does so love his little eyes and ears to be everywhere.”

Nat rolled her eyes towards the ceiling in response and pulled out a small blue blinking antenna chip from inside her sports bra.

“Short distance electronics jammer. So far Stark hasn’t be able to bypass it and he stopped trying after he realized I only turned it on to train, take a shower, and fuck.”

May raised an eyebrow and looked at her with appreciation.

“You’ve probably heard this with varying degrees of effectiveness before but would you like to go out for dinner or something?”

Nat let a wolfish grin split her face then.

“Or something sounds good. Do you dance?”

May smiled. It was genuinely warm. Nat couldn’t help but return it. Maybe she needed to come to this practice room alone more often. The other woman gave her an appreciative glance before nodding slightly. While leaving May called over her shoulder.

“How does Thursday night around 7 sound? I know a club that does big band music every other week.”

Nat smiled crookedly.

“It’s a date.”


End file.
